Westport journalist explores today's tinkering impulse

Joe Meyers

Published 4:11 pm, Thursday, January 24, 2013

Westport journalist Alec Foege explores the history and present-day state of the do-it-yourself impulse in America in his new book "The Tinkerers."
Photo: Contributed Photo

Westport journalist Alec Foege explores the history and present-day...

Westport writer Alec Foege's determination to fix a broken $450 BlackBerry was one of the factors that caused him to explore the history of the American DIY impulse in his new book "The Tinkerers."
Photo: Contributed Photo

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Has the rise of disposable everything done away with the tinkering impulse in America?

In the vanished age of non-computerized cars, and appliances that weren't meant to be thrown out when they broke down, almost every street in America had a few tinkerers on it.

Guys would be outside working on their cars whenever they had the chance, while kids were inside taking apart and putting together radios, record players and whatever else they owned that suddenly broke down.

In his new book "The Tinkerers" (Basic Books, $26), Westport journalist Alec Foege shows us that the impulse to fix and understand the appliances we own did not die with the advent of the iPhone and other high-tech gizmos.

"Everything is so disposable, but if you're going to throw something out anyway, why not take it apart?," the writer asked rhetorically.

Indeed, his book opens with one of the writer's experiences that helped to inspire "The Tinkerers."

Foege accidentally sat on his almost-brand-new BlackBerry and was horrified to see the results -- "The small screen, usually jittering and scrolling with plenty of new messages, was suddenly a Technicolor swirl with a huge black spot in the middle. A Rorschach test for the addled info junkie."

After learning that a replacement would cost $450, he decided to see what made the device tick, and thanks to a short video on YouTube, took his BlackBerry apart and soon had it working again.

Foege began digging deeper into tinkering with tales of people who had "unlocked" iPhones and Sony PlayStation video games, and soon he was off and running on his next book-length, journalistic effort.

"The Tinkerers" takes us back to the stories of men like Thomas Edison and then moves forward to today's business and technology scenes where one man's tinkerer is viewed as a hacker by the companies making the products and services.

Foege found that there is something distinctly homegrown about the impulse to see how things work and then fix them when they break down.

"This is not to say that tinkerers don't exist around the globe," the author explained. "But there is something intrinsically American about it -- culturally, we've (had the impulse to) do things people in other countries say is just not possible."

Despite the rise of so many user-unfriendly, high-tech devices that discourage tinkering, the Internet has restored that old can-do spirit.

"We've had an avalanche of information of all sorts (online) that has revitalized tinkering. One quick Google search is all it takes," he said.

"The Tinkerers" doesn't delve too deeply into the file-sharing end of the Internet -- people finding ways to share free content, such as movies and music on unsanctioned websites. But it's another example of the way people will tinker with something and get tangible results.

"The entertainment and music businesses handled it horribly and contributed to digging their own graves," Foege said of the ignorance and/or resistance to the earliest file sharers.

"You really can't put up a barrier against technology," he said. "The world changes when the technology changes."

Foege assumes more and more people will find themselves in the position he was in with his BlackBerry -- not accepting the either/or of buying a new one for $450 or waiting until his contract ran out.

"It ended up being a real quick education ... I encourage people to void their warranties the way I did," he said, chuckling, of his determination to get more life out of a busted, but very expensive device.

Francesca Segal, who won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, will be speaking about her prize-winning novel "The Innocents" at the Woman's Club of Greenwich, 89 Maple Ave., on Monday, Jan. 28, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

The book transposes Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" to contemporary England, asking the question, "What do Fifth Avenue socialites in the 1870s have in common with London suburbia's Jewish community today?"